Hurricane Isaias, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, crashed into the U.S. Gulf Coast on Friday night, making landfall near Destin, Florida, at 8:30 p.m. CT as a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane-force winds lashed the low-lying Gulf shoreline in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, bringing damaging winds, heavy rain, flooding and life-threatening storm surges. Roads in Destin flooded, Pensacola police told residents to stay off debris-strewn streets, and a video posted to social media showed a roof being ripped off an inn in Pensacola. Mobile, Alabama imposed a curfew through Saturday morning.

More than 664,000 customers in Florida and Alabama were without power early Saturday, according to poweroutage.com, cited in AP reporting carried by multiple outlets. Several Panhandle counties announced mandatory evacuations, Florida's National Guard deployed about 5,000 soldiers and airmen, and search-and-rescue teams stood ready while some prisons evacuated inmates. In a telling measure of severity, dozens of Waffle Houses across the Florida Panhandle closed — the chain famous for staying open through severe weather and for serving as the informal 'Waffle House Index' of a storm's seriousness. DeSantis warned residents to expect gasoline shortages and bridge and highway closures.

Even as Isaias weakened, the water threat stayed severe. The National Hurricane Center warned of a storm surge reaching 3 to 5 feet from Dauphin Island, Alabama, to Florida's Aucilla River, with dangerous conditions across the western Panhandle, southern Alabama and southern Mississippi. Forecasters also warned the storm could stir up tornadoes across the Panhandle and into southern Georgia. As Isaias moves inland, 4 to 8 inches of rain — or more — is expected through the weekend from southern Alabama to southwestern Georgia, with heavy rain and potential flooding spreading across the Southeast, then parts of the Midwest and Northeast into Monday. It is the first hurricane to hit the eastern U.S. since Milton tore up Florida's Gulf Coast in 2024.

Officials expect recovery operations to ramp up Saturday as conditions ease: transportation crews and search-and-rescue teams were scheduled to begin mobilizing around 3 a.m. Saturday to clear debris and inspect bridges, according to Yahoo's updates from the governor's office. The National Hurricane Center expects Isaias to keep weakening to a tropical storm by Saturday afternoon, but its rain shield will spread north over the weekend. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Hurricane Simon strengthened to Category 2 and is expected to hit Mexico this weekend, while Tropical Storm Rachel is expected to bring heavy winds and rain to northern Mexico and Southern California.